2017 NFL Draft: Josh Allen undecided about future

Wyoming’s Josh Allen is a talented quarterback and we can all agree to that and also that he likely will be in the NFL — the real question is when.

However, the recent rise of him heading to the NFL thanks to one NFL Draft writer saying Allen is a top-three pick, but then one day later changes his mind with Allen a top-20 player and the second rated quarterback.

Allen’s father, Joel, spoke with Marek Warszawski of the Fresno Bee about his son’s future and it is not so cut and dry about his son spending another year in Laramie.

We agree with the elder Allen that staying another year in Wyoming would be the right move and that decision is firm even though the Cowboys are losing their top three receivers, best running back ever and a key offensive lineman.

Career starts matter, specifically for a quarterback, and Allen has only 14 and played in 16 total games before he got injured last season. Even with a lot of talent on this team his completion percentage was a paltry 56 percent and only better than Fresno State’s Chason Virgil.

There is also the forced passes he made this year and once again I’ll point to the fourth quarter of the Nebraska game, final pass against BYU or the run in the Mountain West title game where he tried to bulldozer a few San Diego State lineman and lost the ball.

The comparisons will ultimately be made to Carson Wentz since he was coached for two seasons by Craig Bohl when the two were at North Dakota State, but Wentz had the reps by appearing in 43 games. That number would have been more if not for an injury during Wentz’s senior year. Comparing the two is only going to help Allen but Wentz had a career worth of games, film and workouts while Allen has barely a season of FBS under his belt.

While there are plenty of positives with Allen to like such as his size, strong arm and elusiveness, but there are also enough negatives to have him wait a year before entering the NFL Draft.

Allen may want to also look back at the move former Wyoming quarterback Brett Smith made. Smith was a multi-year starter for the Cowboys and nominated for the Manning Award.

He declared for the draft after his junior year once former head coach Dave Christensen stepped down and had Smith stayed he would have been coached by Bohl for his senior year. Smith went undrafted and signed by Tampa Bay but never stuck on and has bounced around from the CFL and Arena League.

The two are different players but it is an example of a player leaving early when an extra year would have truly benefited him.

The deadline to declare for the NFL Draft as an underclassmen is January 16.